Queen’s Communities and Place (QCAP) recently facilitated co-design workshops with curriculum coordinators from 16 primary schools in South Belfast. These workshops aimed to support a collaborative network that promotes resource-sharing and mutual support among schools, enabling them to address challenges collectively. The goal is to ensure consistent, high-quality education for pupils and staff across South Belfast.

Central to the initiative is the development of curriculum clusters focusing on literacy, numeracy, and ICT. These clusters will function as communities of practice where curriculum leaders align strategies, share resources, and implement solutions tailored to their schools' needs. For example, the literacy cluster will explore shared approaches to phonics and reading, while the ICT cluster will address digital inequalities.

Numeracy leaders, in turn, are aiming to streamline planning frameworks for more consistent teaching practices.
The format of the workshops enabled the staff members to take control of the design process, to identify and shape structures that will support them and address need. Initially, participants defined the purpose and foci of their collaboration, before identifying activities and opportunities around which their relationships will develop, with the sessions concluding by putting shape to the structures and processes that will support their interactions.

The series of workshops re-emphasised the critical role of interschool and cross-sectoral collaboration as an effective mechanism for addressing systemic and place-based challenges that individual schools often struggle to tackle independently. By adopting a strategic, place-based approach to collaboration, this network could achieve more than knowledge sharing among schools; it will establish a lasting, organised system that allows schools to jointly address challenges specific to their community context and refine practices over time.

Moving forward, the collaborative curriculum clusters are set to continue meeting at various points during the school year, using the content generated during the workshops to refine their activities and ways of working.

QCAP’s involvement in establishing these collaborative curriculum clusters aligns directly with Queen’s University’s Strategy 2030, reflecting its commitment as an anchor institution focused on social and civic responsibility. By supporting the development of a school network across South Belfast, QCAP advances the university’s ambition to tackle place-based inequalities while advancing economic and social prosperity across Northern Ireland. This initiative is central to Queen’s broader mission of promoting regional growth through education and local partnerships, helping to shape a sustainable and equitable future.

This work reflects a strong commitment to transforming South Belfast’s educational landscape - supporting local schools to respond effectively to the area’s unique needs and to collectively shape a brighter, more equitable future for all pupils and their communities.